Local Author Reading?

Well, here’s something a little weird. A while ago the local newspaper did an article on me for the Woodbury Bulletin. I’d go into the particulars of how it went down, but it’s not all that interesting. Let’s just say a reporter caught wind that I was both a children’s author and firefighter and saw an angle for a story.

I wish I could say I was pleased with how the article turned out, but I guess you can’t have it all.

This was months and months ago. I’ve all but forgotten about it. Unfortunately, the guys at the fire station haven’t. They’ve got the clipping on the bulletin board in the dispatch center and I cringe every time I see it.

Anyway, today in my frantic checking and re-checking of e-mail for any agent news, I saw an e-mail from one of the administrators over at the public safety department. It went a little something like this:

Thomas,

Received a call from a librarian; she read about you in the paper; thought maybe you could read to children at some time.

Please call her back: Missy Librarian 651.555.5785*

See what happens when you become famous!

Patty

*name and phone number altered to protect the innocent

So that’s that. Not sure what exactly they’ll want from me, but I can’t help but feel like it’s a step in the right direction. I said to Laura (my wife): “Crap. They’ll probably want me to show up in my fire gear and read a Barney book or something. Otherwise, I’m just some dumb guy reading them a book.”

The sad thing? My friggin’ book isn’t even out yet. PATRICK’S SUPER SOCKS isn’t due out until January of 2008, so it’s a little early to promote it and even so, it’s such a short little book that even if it was out right now, it’d take all of 5 minutes to read.

“Hi kids, I’m firefighter Thomas. Here’s my book about a kid who can’t sleep without his super socks. Yadda yadda yadda…the end. And hey kids, don’t play with matches!”

Me (center) with a couple other new fire dudes, circa 2003.